The Internet has evolved into having two main functions: facilitating communications and dispersing information. One source for both facilitating communications and dispersing information are discussion groups. Discussion groups are basically a continuous public discussion related to a particular topic. Users can log onto a particular discussion group and post a message or a question to the discussion board. Discussion groups are very effective when users want to participate in a detailed discussion about a particular topic. Typically, the discussion groups are started by an author or entity that has an interest in a particular topic or is seeking answers to questions related to the particular topic. Within each discussion group, there may be multiple threads, which are a hierarchical listing of multiple posts related to the same subject and also archive the conversation among users about that subject. Posts within each thread usually share subject lines as well as the notion of different types of threads, e.g. right now, question and answer, or general discussion. Normally, a user, also known as a poster, places a post to begin a thread. Other posters then may reply to the post. These replies constitute the thread of the discussion.
Users may log into the discussion group and either read the post within a thread or add a new post to a given thread. Although discussion groups have become quite popular, their popularity has lead to several concerns. First, because threads within the discussion groups can become quit large, they require a large amount of storage space within the server. Because the discussion boards are typically maintained on a single server, usually by the author who originated the forum or discussion group, the cost of storing the threads can become quite large. Additionally, because threads may be searched for a particular reply, the cost associated with searching a large number of unimportant threads becomes expensive both in time and money.
A second concern is that that some threads are of no use to users. These threads remain on the server and needlessly consume precious system resources. Additionally, even threads that originally were once useful, may become obsolete, because the topic of the discussion group has become obsolete or because an upgrade or a patch to the software product has become available that solved the problem that was the focus of the discussion. These obsolete threads then occupy resources on the server, thereby increasing the costs associated with hosting it. Still another concern for discussion groups is unsolicited advertisements. These unsolicited advertisements provide no useful information to the discussion thread, occupy valuable system resources, and generally annoy intended users.
One method to deal with these concerns is to delete individual posts within threads that are older than a predetermined date. Typically, the server hosting the discussion board will delete “old” posts from the system. Normally, the server examines each post to determine its age by looking at the post date. If the post date exceeds a threshold number of days, such as ninety days, then the post or message is eliminated. Although deleting individual posts based on a first-in-first-out (FIFO) approach reduces the overall number of posts stored in the discussion board, several problems result from this method. First, deleting old posts fragments the threads and destroys the continuity of the thread. For example, if the original post and earlier replies are deleted from the discussion board, users accessing the thread will not see the initial question or comment and the initial replies, which may contain valuable information. Additionally, the remaining posts may become meaningless to users, as users will not know in what context the post were created. Another problem is that because posts are deleted based on a FIFO approach, potentially useful posts may be deleted, thereby erasing potentially important information, while at the same time possibly leaving useless posts intact.
Another solution to deal with the cost of storing discussion threads is to delete the entire thread if the earliest post within the thread exceeds a predetermined number of days. Thus, instead of only deleting those individual posts within a given thread, the entire thread is deleted. Although deleting the entire thread alleviates the problem of fragmenting threads, potentially useful threads may be deleted simply because they have exceed an arbitrary threshold time limit, while potentially useless threads remain on the server because they have not aged past the predetermined time limit.
Therefore, there is a continuing need for a method for monitoring a discussion group in an automated manner. In particular, there is a need for a method for removing useless and unused threads from a discussion string while maintaining useful threads within the discussion group, regardless of their age.